James Pavatt, 73, was executed by lethal injection on November 12 at Oklahoma's state penitentiary in McAlester. He was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the 2001 death of Rob Andrew, a 39-year-old advertising executive. Pavatt had claimed he was "manipulated" into assisting with the killing.
Background to the crime
Andrew was shot dead in the garage of the Oklahoma City residence he had formerly shared with his wife, Brenda Andrew. The shooting occurred after he collected the couple's two young children ahead of Thanksgiving. Prosecutors said Pavatt, who attended the same church as the Andrew family, committed the killing alongside Brenda Andrew, who remains the state's sole female inmate on death row.
In the weeks before the shooting, Rob Andrew reported to police that someone was trying to kill him after his car's brake lines were severed. Following her husband's death, Brenda Andrew told police that masked intruders shot her in the arm and fatally shot him. Pavatt and Brenda Andrew fled to Mexico with her two children and were apprehended three months later while re-entering the US.
Conviction and clemency hearing
Pavatt and Brenda Andrew were found guilty at separate trials and both received death sentences. During a clemency hearing last month, Pavatt maintained he was "not guilty of shooting anyone," saying he had fallen for Brenda Andrew and trusted "everything she told me." He stated: "It was not until my trial that I began to see the extent to which I had been manipulated by Brenda. I can see why the jury believed that we were both involved in Rob's murder."
The prosecution argued that Pavatt and Andrew conspired to murder Rob Andrew, asserting that regardless of who pulled the trigger, both bore equal culpability.
Reaction and context
Following the execution, Archbishop of Oklahoma Paul S. Coakley commented on the death penalty, saying: "The Church is firm in proclaiming the sacredness and dignity of every human life, from conception to natural death. This dignity endures even for those who have committed grave crimes." He noted this was the fourth execution this year in Oklahoma and called for prayer for the victim, Robert Andrew, and his family, as well as for Pavatt and his family.
The execution follows weeks after the bungled lethal injection of Christa Pike, a 50-year-old death row prisoner in Tennessee who survived after receiving two separate administrations of pentobarbital. The United States is set to exceed 40 executions for the second year running, with Florida leading the way as capital punishment faces fresh scrutiny. Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom revealed plans to commute hundreds of death sentences before his term concludes, a move experts describe as potentially the largest mass clemency action in American history.
